Illinois' 4th Congressional District elections, 2012
2014 →
|
 |
November 6, 2012 |
March 20, 2012 |
Luis V. Gutierrez  |
Luis V. Gutierrez |
 |
 |
The 4th Congressional District of Illinois held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012.
Incumbent Luis V. Gutierrez won the election.[1]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Primary: Illinois has a mixed-hybrid primary system. Voters can change parties each year but must declare a party affiliation at the polls. Depending on which party is chosen, the voter will then be counted as registered for that party. Voters may change party affiliation at polls or caucus.
Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by February 21. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9. A "grace period" was also available, allowing voter registration until three days before an election.[2][3]
- See also: Illinois elections, 2012
Incumbent: Heading into the election the incumbent was Luis V. Gutierrez (D), who was first elected in 1992.
This was the first election using district maps based on data from the 2010 Census. Illinois' 4th Congressional District includes part of Cook County. On March 30, 2012, the 4th District was included in a list released by the National Journal of the top ten most contorted congressional districts due to redistricting.[4]
Candidates
General election candidates
- Luis Gutierrez
- Jorge Zavala (Write-in)
Hector Concepcion (Write-in)
March 20, 2012, primary results
|
|
|
- Note: Hector Concepcion and Jorge Zavala were removed from the candidate list on January 17, 2012.[5][6]
Election results
General Election
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Luis Gutierrez Incumbent |
83% | 133,226 | |
| Republican | Hector Concepcion | 17% | 27,279 | |
| Total Votes | 160,505 | |||
| Source: Illinois Board of Elections "2012 General Election Official Vote Totals" | ||||
Democratic Primary
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Luis Gutierrez Incumbent |
100% | 30,908 |
| Jorge Zavala | 0% | 6 |
| Total Votes | 30,914 | |
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in Illinois
With the 2011 redistricting, Illinois lost 1 of its current 19 House seats because the state's population failed to grow as fast as in other states.[7] Illinois has had 11 Republican congressmen and 8 Democrats since the November 2010 election.[7] The new map, designed by the dominant Democrats, could have flipped that advantage to as many as 12 Democrats and only six Republicans.[7] On March 30, 2012, the 4th District was included in a list released by the National Journal of the top ten most contorted congressional districts due to redistricting.[4]
The new 4th District was composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.[8][9]
- 14 percent from the 3rd Congressional District
- 64 percent from the 4th Congressional District
- 20 percent from the 5th Congressional District
- 2 percent from the 7th Congressional District
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Illinois' 4th District became less Democratic because of redistricting.[10]
- 2012: 78D / 22R
- 2010: 82D / 18R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measures each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. Illinois' 4th Congressional District has a PVI of D+26, which is the 27th most Democratic district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by Barack Obama (D), 82-18 percent over John McCain (R). In 2004, John Kerry (D) won the district 73-27 percent over George W. Bush (R).[11]
Campaign donors
2012
| Luis V. Gutierrez (2012)[12] Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| April Quarterly[13] | April 9, 2012 | $40,729.94 | $0.00 | $(5,201.34) | $35,528.60 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $0 | $(5,201.34) | ||||||||
District history
| Candidate ballot access |
|---|
 |
| Find detailed information on ballot access requirements in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. |
2010
On November 2, 2010, Luis V. Gutierrez won re-election to the United States House of Representatives. He defeated Israel Vasquez (R) and Robert J. Burns (G) in the general election.[14]
| U.S. House, Illinois District 4 General Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Luis V. Gutierrez Incumbent |
77.4% | 63,273 | |
| Republican | Israel Vasquez | 14.3% | 11,711 | |
| Green | Robert J. Burns | 8.3% | 6,808 | |
| Total Votes | 81,792 | |||
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
External links
- Campaign finance at OpenSecrets.org
Footnotes
- ↑ Politico, "2012 Election Map, Illinois"
- ↑ Illinois Board of Elections, "2012 Election Calendar," accessed July 21, 2012
- ↑ Illinois Board of Elections, "Registering to Vote in Illinois," accessed July 21, 2012
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 National Journal, "Modern Gerrymanders: 10 Most Contorted Congressional Districts—MAPS," accessed March 31, 2012
- ↑ Illinois State Board of Elections "Candidate List" accessed December 27, 2011
- ↑ Illinois State Board of Elections "Candidate List" accessed December 27, 2011
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chicago Tribune, "Odd geography in new Illinois congressional map:Millions of constituents will find their representative has changed" accessed February 22, 2012
- ↑ Moonshadow Mobile's CensusViewer, "Illinois' congressional districts 2001-2011 comparison"
- ↑ Labels & Lists, "VoterMapping software voter counts"
- ↑ "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in Illinois," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
- ↑ FEC Reports, "Luis V. Gutierrez Summary Reports" accessed July 9, 2012
- ↑ FEC Reports, "April Quarterly" accessed July 9, 2012
- ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
